Job Opportunity for Senior Associate, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning at Peepul in Bhopal

About Peepul

Peepul is an education-focused non-profit. We dream and work towards creating an education system in India that enables and supports every child to realise their potential. We work closely with national, state, and local governments to transform government schools and government systems. Currently, we work with governments in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, to meaningfully have impact across 300,000 teachers and 9 million children, across 100,000+ schools.

We have received many accolades for our work, including the Commonwealth Education Awards for Innovation (from ~2500 applications across 32 countries). One of the schools we deeply support in Delhi was shortlisted as the Top 10 Schools in the world for Innovation. Our work has also been featured in reports and publications by the Education Development Trust, the UN and the national Ministry of Education, India. The impact of our work has also been verified by third-party assessments.

Within a period of three years, we have grown tremendously to now reach a team size of 150 employees, across the geographies in which we operate. Impact at scale is the core of our work and this approach has been profiled in the media by Business World, The Economic Times, Nexus of Good Foundation, FICCI, Niti Aayog, among others.

We are a restless, resilient, and reflective organisation. We aim high, innovate, work smart, work as a team, and use rigorous research to inform our work. With regard to our talent, we work towards keeping our people first and offer a compelling compensation and benefits package, to ensure our high-quality talent is appreciated and remunerated competitively.

Where we are on Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

Over the last 2 years, we have built a sophisticated MEL function, that works with largescale data with Alteryx and PowerBI, partners with programmes to co-design and implement impact measurement tools, has detailed Theories of Change of the organization and programmes, and connects the dots across experiences.

In the next 3 years, we plan to leverage our impact track record and learnings, to be a leading thought leader in the sector, and be a role-model of impact measurement.

We are involved with one of the early Development Impact Bonds in education in India, are working on large-scale programmes, and are staying deeply rooted in our exemplar schools as innovation grounds – all of these pioneering initiatives come together to form a strong MEL launchpad for the organization.

Role Description

We are a looking for a Senior Associate to contribute to the MEL efforts and strengthen our programs in Madhya Pradesh. Measuring impact is in the DNA of our organization, especially as we grow and scale our work. This is an exciting opportunity for an individual who wants to learn more about measuring impact of programs at scale, contribute to our programme evaluation and ensure that we are iterating on programme design and course correcting, where necessary, using data and evidence.

Key Responsibilities (including but not limited to):

Execute the organization MEL design and strategy to become a sector leader in impact measurement

o Contribute to the execution of the organization-wide MEL strategy, including identifying and designing mission-critical indicators

o Collaborate with the MEL team on monitoring and impact evaluation internally or collaborate with external agencies, analyse findings from such evaluations and use learnings to inform programme design.

o Implement different systems and processes to improve MEL and program cycles

Driving data-based decision-making within the organization

o Support design of monitoring and evaluation framework and the tools for different Peepul programmes in Madhya Pradesh

o Assist the project and field team with regular data collection and evidence gathering

o Conduct regular quantitative and qualitative data analysis and use automation/visualization tools to present data to internal and external audience

o Ensure timely implementation of monitoring projects with a strong focus on execution and quality assurance – including data validity checks

o Collaborate with the program design and implementation teams to interpret the data and ensure that the learnings are incorporated in the continuous cycle of program design and implementation

o Develop and update data dashboards for each project in collaboration with partners and relevant agencies

Contribute to the thought leadership of Peepul in the sector

o Contribute to research projects to collect and analyse data from organisations across India and abroad to build evidence which can be used to inform practitioners, funders and policy makers within the education sector.

o Produce high-quality, periodic reports of the evaluation for internal use and for funder reports

Qualifications

Experience and skills:

• Bachelor’s degree in international development, statistics, mathematics, education, public policy, economics, or related field

• A minimum of 2-3 years of experience in private or public sector organizations; including demonstrated success in data analysis and/or monitoring and evaluation programs in the development sector.

• Fellowship experience (such as Teach For India, Gandhi Fellowship, etc.) is considered as full-time experience

• Expertise in designing, implementing, and executing MEL systems including indicator selection, target setting, tool development, data collection, reporting, database management, and developing M&E and performance monitoring plans.

• Prior knowledge of the major monitoring and evaluation methodologies (e.g., quasi-experimental designs, pre-post, qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method, and impact assessment etc.) and data collection and analysis methodologies.

• Excellent quantitative and qualitative statistical analysis skills including advanced Microsoft Excel skills and experience with analytical tools such as SPSS, Stata, R, Alteryx, Python, and NVivo/ Atlas

• Experience in utilizing existing automation systems and presenting data through visualizations and dashboards using software such as PowerBI and Tableu is preferred

• Capacity to synthesize monitoring data into effective presentation of results to help guide recommendations on performance improvement.

Personal Attributes:

• Strong alignment with Peepul’s mission of providing quality education and building stronger education ecosystems in India

• Ability to negotiate and achieve consensus with key stakeholders.

• Self-starter who will thrive in a start-up setting by taking ownership and initiative

• Openness to listen, learn and contribute beyond the confines of this role

• Hard working, detail orientated, tenacious and systematic

• Enthusiastic to do whatever it takes willing to take personal accountability for delivery

• Strong working knowledge of Hindi (speaking, reading, and writing) is preferred

• Flexible, highly organized and able to prioritize work to meet deadlines.

Compensation and Benefits

Compensation will be commensurate with the qualifications and experiences. Peepul is a people-first organization, and offers a range of employee benefits, including a generous health insurance (for self and parents), a generous leave policy, relocation benefits, PF, Gratuity, communication and travel reimbursements, etc.

Application Process

All open JDs are available on www.peepulindia.org/careers.

To apply for this position, please submit your application with a CV and cover letter as an email to recruitment@peepulindia.org, with the subject “Application for Senior Associate, MEL”. Please ensure that your CV includes relevant professional and personal experience and details on academic qualifications.

Additionally, we encourage you to use your cover letter to highlight why you want to work for Peepul and are interested in this particular role.

Please contact us at recruitment@peepulindia.org for further queries (if any).